2023-05-26 20:45:27
The Old Oak ****
Ken Loach
British, French and Belgian film
” Are you sure ? » This is the question Ken Loach asked Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, when the latter told him that The Old Oak, his last film – and perhaps his last feature film – was selected in the official competition. He was not the only one to wonder about the relevance of this choice. At 86, the British veteran has already been selected 19 times on the Croisette, won seven prizes, including two Palmes d’Or (in 2006 for The wind picks up and in 2016 for Moi, Daniel Blake). “Make way for young people! we were tempted to grumble.
Badly took it from us. Because Ken Loach once again proves the immense extent of his talent, his mastery of directing going to the essentials, his perfect direction of actors and the incredible power of his stories to arouse as many thoughts as emotions. . With always the same obsession: to tell those who make the salt of the earth, the humble, the invisible and the unranked.
The local pub, the last place of sociability
After having denounced the excesses of uberization at the height of a family, in Sorry We Missed YouKen Loach and his faithful screenwriter, Paul Laverty, look at the question of welcoming refugees on the scale of a village in the northeast of England.
Undermined by unemployment since the closure of the coal pits, this small town located by the sea is struggling not to sink. The last place of sociability, the only one still resisting the growing impoverishment, is the local pub, The Old Oak (“The Old Oak”), in the shade of which the inhabitants come to discuss, argue, laugh and intoxicate. His boss, TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner), who holds the business at arm’s length, has the stature of a lumberjack who barely hides a soul split by the wounds of the past.
“Hope holds, but it hurts”
When families of Syrian refugees are welcomed into the city, he does everything to help them. Without contradicting his customers, and long-time friends, who come to rail against these newcomers. Not all of them are openly racist, some advancing relevant criticisms: why install people who have nothing left in a city whose inhabitants have little to offer?
Never Manichaean, the scenario clearly shows everyone’s reasons for rejecting or supporting the refugees. Among them, the young Yara (Ebla Mari), who photographs everything around her to put fear at a distance, manages to create links, especially with TJ. No unwelcome romance, but a beautiful friendship is forged between these two injured in life. “Hope keeps you going, but it hurts”, she breathes, when she talks about her father imprisoned in Syria.
Will they be able to get out of this? This is the real suspense that Ken Loach casts over his film. We tremble for Yara and the boss of The Old Oak, lest they end up like The Great Oak of Brassens. We laugh at the well-felt replies that the pillars of the counter send to each other. We cry during moving scenes where the filmmaker and his screenwriter expose the distress of some, or the solidarity of others.
This film, which brings together all of humanity in the world and provides concrete answers to burning current events, on the other side of the Channel as well as ours, deserves a third Palme d’Or for its director and an interpretation award. for Dave Turner, all in his character. We are sure now.
—
#Oak #Ken #Loach #mankind #world